The Ford Kuga-based Lincoln MKC Concept makes its debut at the Detroit motor.

Ford’s Lincoln marque has lumped along behind its parent’s ambitious model plans of late, selling modest numbers of expensive models to old folk.

"We need to talk about Lincoln" has been something of a litany at Ford ever since the boss, Alan Mulally, sold off the Premier Automotive Group brands and espoused Lincoln as Ford’s worldwide luxury brand.

The company is now promising us seven new or updated models before 2015 and this MKC SUV, shown at the Detroit motor show, is one of them. After last year’s Ford Fusion-based MKZ, the MKC SUV crossover is based on the Ford Escape/new Ford Kuga. It’s a pretty unexceptional looking sport utility in a pretty crowded market.

Road tests of the MKZ suggest it’s too similar to the cheaper Fusion model to command its hefty price premium and it’s been completely oversold by Ford’s marketing team. Several US motoring journalists suggested that this might also be true of the MKC. They’ll have to wait a year to find out as the MKC won’t be available until the 2014 model year.

In Europe, there’s very little chance of this Lincoln being the vanguard of Mulally’s hopes of world domination by the 96-year-old luxury car maker.